Below are some tidbits on baseball and sportscard collecting.
Visit our web site for more info on vintage and current
baseball, football, basketball, hockey, sports and
non-sport cards and card collecting.

Q2: How long have sports cards been around ?

(part 2)
The first important and mainstream basketball set was issued by Bowman in 1948.
Other than a Topps set in 1957-58 and a 1961-62 Fleer set, there were no
mainstream basketball sets issued until Topps started producing yearly sets
beginning with their 1969-70 set featuring the rookie card of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
who then went under the name of Lew Alcindor.

In hockey, there were a few sets issued in the 1910's and while O-Pee-Chee issued
some sets in the 1930's, the real modern sets began in 1951 with the itroduction
of Parkhurst's first set.

In racing, while cards go back as far as the early Indy car days of 1911,
modern racing sets began in 1988 with the issues released by MAXX.

The issue below is featured elsewhere on this website:

HARTLAND STATUES

Hartland produced it's first baseball statues back in the early 60's.
Sports Collectibles Digest stated that the 1960's Mickey Mantle Hartland
is the single most popular plastic sports statue ever produced !
In 1988 Hartland created their 25th Anniversary Editions which,
except for some very minor details, were identical to the original.

Hartland partnered with America's leading hobby-periodical publisher,
Krause Publications, to create the SCD Authentic series offering
the original 18 as you've never seen them with each statue dramatically
different from prior releases. They are amazingly beautiful and
exquisitely detailed in their road uniforms with painted pinstripes and
wood grained bats making them a unique collectible opportunity for both
veteran collectors and Hartland newcomers alike.

Limited to only 2,500 pieces each, these statues are
BRAND NEW, MINT and in THEIR ORIGINAL BOXES !!!

1964 Topps Stand-Ups

Topps most popular 1960's test issue !!!
Blank-backed and unnumbered, these standard size cards were called
"Stand-Ups". "Stand-Ups" refers to a type of card that was die cut around
the player's picture. The background section then could be folded in half, so the card
could stand up by itself while the player's picture stood alone.
Directions for folding are on the background and when folded only the
green background remains.
1934-36 Batter Up and the 1951 Topps All-Star sets are 2 other popular
standup issues.

Thanks to the green and yellow borders and the likelihood that most cards
have been heavily folded, 1964 Stand-Ups are extremely difficult to
obtain in top grades.

The 77 card set features color photographs of the player on
yellow and green backgrounds. 22 of the 77 cards were single printed making
them twice as scarce and much higher in demand.